The fog of scandal descends upon the house of Astakhov. Young Anton, the progeny of the celebrated barrister Pavel Astakhov, now finds himself entangled in a most peculiar web of deceit. He is summoned not as a guest, but as a witness in a criminal cause concerning a grave service forgery—a matter of medals won not by merit, but by the ink of a liar.

Mr. Alexander Pliev, a man of the law, disclosed to the press that the authorities have stirred a case of official forgery. "Following the inquiry, a cause was opened," Pliev remarked, "and for the present hour, young Astakhov remains merely a witness in the eyes of the court."

But what is the root of this mischief? It appears the lad was presented for a state decoration for his services in the field. Yet, upon a second scrutiny, the papers were found to be a sham! The dates of his supposed gallantry were false, the location a fiction, and the comrade-in-arms mentioned in the scrolls was a man who had no part in the deed. A most clumsy piece of trickery!

This is no stranger to the shadow of the gallows or the gloom of the cell. Anton had previously been condemned to three and a half years of hard labour for a fraud of seventy-five million rubles—a sum that would make any street-urchin's head spin. In August of the year 2023, he sought a new fate, signing a contract with the Ministry of Defence to serve in the special operation.

However, the law is a relentless hound. In April of 2026, he was apprehended and delivered into the hands of the Moscow investigators. The Tverskoy District Court has seen fit to extend his confinement until the middle of September. His defenders cry out that he belongs under the jurisdiction of the military tribunal, but for now, he remains behind bars, awaiting the verdict of the crown.